During Tuesday’s practice, Maryland volleyball coach Steve Aird told his players to treat each match like it’s the Super Bowl. While his squad is unlikely to make the postseason, he wanted to see consistent effort for the remainder of the campaign.
In particular, he hoped Maryland could improve its play on the road, where it had a 2-8 record entering Wednesday night’s matchup with Purdue.
Instead, Aird watched the Terps (10-15, 2-11 Big Ten) suffer another defeat away from College Park. They struggled to finish sets and fell, 3-1, to the Boilermakers (15-9, 5-8) to mark their second straight loss.
“We have to find a way to close out sets and win matches on the road,” Aird said. “We have to … break that pattern and get this thing going.”
Outside hitter Gia Milana led the team with 23 kills, bouncing back from two disappointing performances against then-No. 19 Ohio State. Middle blocker Hailey Murray, meanwhile, continued to show offensive improvement with 10 kills.
After earning one opening-set kill against Ohio State on Friday, Milana started the match against the Boilermakers with four kills on Maryland’s first nine points. She notched seven kills in the frame.
The Terps lost the set 25-23, despite Purdue making six service errors. At one point, Maryland held a 20-18 advantage but couldn’t close out the frame.
“Game one was kind of the key to the match,” Aird said. “If we won that, it’s a different feeling. But [the Boilermakers are] an awfully good team. They beat Stanford and they beat Kansas … so they have good volleyball in them.”
Maryland forced Purdue to call timeout midway through set two with a 5-1 run that gave it a 12-11 lead. But following the stoppage, middle blocker Ashlyn MacGregor made a service error and a misplaced pass from setter Taylor Smith caused opposite hitter Angel Gaskin to make an attacking error.
The Boilermakers used those mistakes as a springboard for a 14-3 run to conclude the frame.
Aird was displeased with the effort his players displayed during that collapse. He said it was the result of subpar energy in practice this past week.
“I didn’t love their approach in practice, and I didn’t love their approach in game two,” Aird said. “Every day should be a Super Bowl. It’s a full-time gig and people have to come hard every day and compete.”
Facing a must-win third set, the Terps jumped ahead 16-9. With the help of four more kills from Milana, they notched a 25-16 win in the third frame.
Maryland failed to hang on in set four, though.
Milana gave the squad a 13-6 lead with a spike. But with a set point opportunity at 25-24, Milana, who is usually subbed out to let outside hitter Megan McTigue serve, remained in the game. Milana then committed a service error, which helped Purdue score four of five points to win the frame, 28-26, and clinch the match.
Aird stood by his decision to let Milana serve.
“She’s arguably our best player and you want to have your best player on the floor,” Aird said. “She just needs to finish. I’m sure she would have wanted to be a little more clutch down the stretch.”
Milana agreed with the assessment from her coach. She has talked about becoming more clutch throughout the season, so she was disappointed with how the contest ended.
“It hurts because that is what I play for,” Milana said. “I live for those points in the game to really make my mark and help my team out. So it was really frustrating.”
